CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
BACKGROUND
[0002] Differential signaling is a method of transmitting information with two complementary
signals on two conductors, such as paired wires. Differential signaling usually improves
resistance to electromagnetic interference (EMI) since the information is conveyed
through the difference between the voltages on the wires. However, if there are imbalances
or asymmetries between the two conductors, common mode components may arise even when
the two conductors are differentially driven. The presence of common mode currents
on a cable does not inherently degrade the integrity of differential signaling, but
if energy can be transferred from a common mode to a differential mode, then the common
mode current can become a dominant interference signal, in a phenomenon known as mode-conversion
or mode coupling.
[0003] Mode conversion can cause significant performance degradation. While internal interference
sources (such as ISI, echo, FEXT, and NEXT) are known to the link partners and can
be cancelled effectively with cancellers and equalizers, the mode conversion interference
is unknown until it occurs, and thus presents difficulties for the desired performance
of high bandwidth communication systems.
[0004] US Patent No. 8320411 describes a fast retraining sequence that is performed by omitting several of the
stages of a full training sequence used to train the parameters of a transceiver to
achieve a fully-functional nominal operation of data communication over a communication
link. The fast retraining sequence retains and does not change the values of some
of the parameters that have not substantially changed during normal operation since
the last full training sequence for the transceiver.
SUMMARY
[0005] The present invention provides a transceiver configured to recover within less than
1 millisecond from quality degradation in its operating point as set forth in claim
1.
[0006] In another aspect, the present invention provides a method for recovering within
less than 1 millisecond from quality degradation in a transceiver's operating point
as set forth in claim 12.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] The embodiments are herein described, by way of example only, with reference to the
accompanying drawings. In the drawings:
FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a transceiver configured to converge fast;
FIG. 1B illustrates an alternative embodiment of a transceiver configured to converge
fast;
FIG. 2A illustrates one embodiment of a communication system operating over a differential
communication channel that is not completely known;
FIG. 2A illustrates another embodiment of a communication system operating over a
differential communication channel that is not completely known; and
FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a communication system operating over a differential
communication channel.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0008] FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a transceiver configured to converge fast.
Transceiver 100 (which does not includes the channel 201 and the transceiver 102)
includes the following elements: a common mode sensor analog front end (CMS-AFE 710),
a fast-adaptive mode-conversion canceller (FA-MCC 712), a receiver analog front end
(Rx AFE 716), an adaptive digital equalizer and canceller (ADEC 718), a slicer 735
(that includes a soft decision 730, a selector 732, and an error generator 734), a
Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS 740), a link layer 742, a controller 752, a selector
750, a transmitter PCS (Tx PCS 760), a transmitter digital sampler (Tx dig samp 762),
and a transmitter AFE (Tx AFE 764).
[0009] The soft decision 730 decides on the reconstructed representation of the original
transmitted signal 728 by slicing the reconstructed representation of the original
transmitted signal 728. In one embodiment, when a serious interference is too high,
the ability of the soft decision 730 to make an accurate decision may not be good
enough, and/or the convergence time of the transceiver 100 may be too long. Thus,
the controller 752 requests the transceiver 102 to transmit known data (such as to
transmit the idle sequence, or a sequence based on the idle sequence), and configures
the selector 732 to output the known decision received from the PCS 740 instead of
the probably wrong decision received from the soft decision 730. As a result of configuring
the selector 732 to output the known decision, the error generator 734 is now able
to generate the correct error based on the reconstructed representation of the original
transmitted signal 728 and the known decision 741 received from the PCS 740. The correct
error enables the ADEC 718 and FA-MCC 712 to converge fast because their convergence
speed is function of the noisiness of the error, and thus receiving the correct error
accelerates their convergence. Using the known decision 741 also reduces the error
propagation of the ADEC 718 because the correct decision is fed from selector 732
over line 719 to the ADEC 718. Therefore, having the correct error by injecting the
known decision 741 supports fast adaptation, reduces error propagation, and moves
the transceiver 100 into a stable state - also when the differential communication
channel suffers from a serious interference.
[0010] FIG. 1B illustrates an alternative embodiment of a transceiver configured to converge
fast. Transceiver 101 does not include an FA-MCC component, although the ADEC 717
may include the functionality of the FA-MCC 712. Controller 753 may be similar to
controller 752, which the difference that controller 753 may be designed to operate
without an FA-MCC component.
[0011] In one embodiment, first and second transceivers configured to forward time sensitive
data at a predetermined average rate and up to a predetermined packet delay variation,
comprising:
An Rx analog front end (AFE) and a common mode sensor AFE (CMS-AFE) that couple the
second transceiver to a differential communication channel coupled to the first transceiver.
The differential communication channel is not completely known, and the first and
second transceivers are expected to work at a first packet loss rate when there is
no serious interference. From time to time the differential communication channel
may suffer from serious interferences that increase significantly the packet loss
rate to a second packet loss rate that is at least ten times the first packet loss
rate.
[0012] The CMS-AFE is configured to extract a digital representation of a common mode signal
of the received differential signal, and forward it to a fast-adaptive mode-conversion
canceller (FA-MCC) configured to generate a compensation signal to cancel the differential
interference caused by mode-conversion of the common mode signal.
[0013] The FA-MCC is further configured to utilize large adaptation step size to cancel
the effect of the serious interference fast.
[0014] The Rx AFE is configured to extract the received differential signal and feed it
to an adaptive digital equalizer and canceller (ADEC). The ADEC includes one or more
equalizers, such as Decision Feedback Equalizer (DFE) and/or Feed-Forward Equalizer
(FFE), and one or more cancellers, such as FEXT canceller.
[0015] The FA-MCC and the ADEC are configured to reconstruct a representation of the original
transmitted signal, and feed the representation of the original transmitted signal
to a slicer configured to feeds a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS) with sliced symbols.
In one example, the original transmitted signal is the signal sent from the first
transceiver before shaping.
[0016] The PCS is configured to extract a bitstream from the sliced symbols, and to feed
a link layer component configured to parse the sliced symbols into packets. It is
noted that bitstream includes bytestream and all other similar equivalents.
[0017] The link layer component comprises a retransmission module configured to: request
retransmission of packets with errors, and forward the packets in the correct order
after receiving the retransmitted packets. It is noted that packets with errors includes
missing packets and any other packet that may require retransmission.
[0018] And the FA-MCC is configured to converge at a short time, such that the retransmissions
caused by the serious interference still enable the transceiver to forward packets
at the predetermined average rate and within the predetermined packet delay variation.
[0019] FIG. 2A illustrates one embodiment of a communication system operating over a differential
communication channel that is not completely known and may suffer from serious common-mode-to-differential-mode
interference (in some cases may be shortly referred to as "serious interference").
The communication system includes a transceiver 201 and a transceiver 200 (which does
not include the transceiver 201 and the channel 210), capable of communicating at
a high throughput, with communication rates possibly exceeding 120 Mbps, 1.2Gbps,
or 10Gbps.
[0020] The communication system is implemented, at least in part, on Integrated Circuits
(ICs) having limited resources. The communication system further implements a retransmission
module on the ICs. In one embodiment, the first transceiver utilizes a retransmission
module 204 that uses a buffer 205 to store packets that may have to be retransmitted.
In one embodiment, the second transceiver utilizes a retransmission module 236 that
uses a buffer 237 to store the received packets until all the packets are received
successfully, and then the buffer may forward the received packets in the correct
order to a client. Additionally or alternatively, the retransmission module 236 may
use the buffer 237 to store the received packets for a short period until it is possible
to forward them to the client, optionally in the order of their arrival, which may
not be the correct order.
[0021] The sizes of the buffers (205, 237) used by the retransmission module may be limited
in order to save cost. In one example, the buffer 205 of the first transceiver can
store up to 20 microseconds of traffic sent at the highest communication rate. In
another example, the second transceiver forwards the packets in the correct order
and the buffer 237 of the second transceiver can store up to 30 microseconds of traffic
sent at the highest communication rate. In still another example, at least one of
the buffers used by the first and second transceiver can store up to 100 microseconds
of traffic sent at the highest communication rate.
[0022] Upon detecting a new serious interference, the second transceiver utilizes a fast-adaptive
mode-conversion canceller (FA-MCC) to generate a compensation signal to cancel the
differential interference caused by mode-conversion of the common mode signal. Optionally,
until the interference is cancelled, the first transceiver retransmits the lost packets.
The FA-MCC may not have in advanced information regarding the properties of the interference,
and thus the FA-MCC uses large adaptation step size that enables fast convergence.
Although the actual size of the large adaptation step size depends on the specific
implementation, a person skilled in the art should be able to calculate the values
of the large adaptation step sizes to support convergence time that is short enough
for the communication system to meet its design goals and/or real-time requirements.
One example of a design goal is not to exceed the limited capacity of one or more
of the buffers 205 and 237 used by the retransmission module. One example of a real-time
requirement is not to exceed the maximum permitted delay allocated to the communication
channel.
[0023] As a result of the large adaptation step size, the convergence of the FA-MCC after
a serious interference is usually not optimal.
[0024] In one example, the serious interference causes packet loss to exceed 50% at the
second transceiver, and the FA-MCC is designed to converge within less than 20 microseconds
to a level that reduces the packet loss at the second transceiver to less than 5%.
Optionally, packet loss is calculated as the number of packet lost divided by the
number of packets sent.
[0025] In another example, the serious interference causes packet loss to exceed 10% at
the second transceiver, and the FA-MCC is designed to converge within less than 10
microseconds to a level that reduces the packet loss at the second transceiver to
less than 1%.
[0026] In still another example, the serious interference causes packet loss to exceed 2%
at the second transceiver, and the FA-MCC is designed to converge within less than
20 microseconds to a level that reduces the packet loss at the second transceiver
to less than 0.1%.
[0027] In one embodiment, the communication channel is relatively short (for example, shorter
than 10 meters, or shorter than 3 meters) and thus is not considered difficult. In
such a channel, the communication system can operate well enough with the non-optimal
convergence of the FA-MCC because the leftover interference that was not cancelled
does not prevent successful communication over the channel.
[0028] The digital canceller 225 may be implemented in various ways. FIG. 2A illustrates
one example in which the digital canceller 225 includes at least an equalizer 224
and a Decision Based Filter (DBF) 228. In one example, equalizer 224 may be a Feed
Forward Equalizer (FFE).
[0029] The term "Decision Based Filter", such as DBF 228, refers to a filter fed at least
by a slicer's output, such as slicing results and/or slicing errors. In one example,
the DBF includes a non-adaptive Decision Feedback Equalizer (DFE), or a non-adaptive
FEXT canceller, fed by the slicing results. In another example, the DBF includes an
adaptive DFE, or an adaptive FEXT canceller, fed by the slicing results and/or the
slicing errors. In still another example, the DBF includes an adaptive Feed-Forward
Equalizer (FFE) fed by the slicing errors for adaptation purpose.
[0030] The term "slicer" or "slicer function", such as slicer 226, is defined as a one or
more dimensional quantizer that outputs the quantization result. Optionally, the slicer
may include different slicers for different modulations. Optionally, the slicer may
output one or more of the following indications: the error between the received signal
and the quantization result, the slicer function used for producing the slicing result,
the direction of the slicing error, and/or other indications.
[0031] The slicing results are fed to a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS), such as PCS 234,
which parses the data packets and extracts information such as a packet header, a
packet payload, a packet tail, and/or an error detection code. It is noted that herein
an "error detection code" also covers an "error correction code".
[0032] In one embodiment, the retransmission module 236 receives the parsed packets from
the PCS 234, and based on the received parsed packets it may request retransmission
of the packets with errors. In one embodiment, one of the relationships between the
FA-MCC and the retransmission module 236 is that the buffer 237 is large enough to
buffer packets that are received until the FA-MCC cancels the effect of the serious
interference. The combination of the FA-MCC and the retransmission module 236 enables
the system to use small retransmission buffers also when operating over a communication
channel that is not completely known and suffers from serious common-mode-to-differential-mode
interference.
[0033] FIG. 2B illustrates one embodiment of a communication system operating over a differential
communication channel that is not completely known and may suffer from serious common-mode-to-differential-mode
interference. The communication system includes a transceiver 262 and a transceiver
260 (which does not include the transceiver 262 and the channel 210), capable of communicating
at a high throughput, with communication rates possibly exceeding 100 Mbps, 1Gbps,
or 10Gbps.
[0034] The transceiver 260 is implemented on an integrated circuit (IC) having limited resources.
The transceiver 260 includes at least first and second AFEs (222, 230) coupled to
the transceiver 262 over a differential communication channel 210 that is not completely
known; from time to time the differential communication channel may suffer from serious
interferences that prevent normal operation.
[0035] The CMS-AFE is configured to extract a digital representation of a common mode signal
of the received differential signal, and forward it to a fast-adaptive mode-conversion
canceller (FA-MCC) configured to generate a compensation signal to cancel the differential
interference caused by mode-conversion of the common mode signal. The FA-MCC is further
configured to utilize large adaptation step size to cancel the effect of the serious
interference fast. The large adaptation step size enables it to cancel, within less
than 20 microseconds, the effect of the serious common-mode-to-differential-mode interference
to a level that enables the normal operation. The digital canceller 225 feeds a slicer
226 that feeds a PCS 234 with quantization results. The PCS 234 extracts packet data
from the quantization results and drives a retransmission module 270 that requests
retransmission of the packets with errors based on the packet data. In one embodiment,
the retransmission module is limited to support retransmission of up to 200% of the
packets received during the time it takes the FA-MCC to cancel the effect of the serious
interference.
[0036] In one embodiment, the retransmission module 270 is implemented on the IC with limited
resources that cannot support retransmission of more than 200% of the packets received
during the time it takes the FA-MCC to cancel the effect of the serious interference.
In one embodiment, the retransmission module includes a retransmission buffer 271
able to store up to 200% of the packets received during the time it takes the FA-MCC
to cancel the effect of the serious interference. In one embodiment, the retransmission
module 270 is limited to support retransmission of up to 200% of the packets received
during the time it takes the FA-MCC to cancel the effect of the serious interference
in order to achieve one or more of the following requirements: a maximum allowed jitter,
a maximum amount of dropped packets, and requirements related to time sensitive data
transmitted over the communication channel.
[0037] In one example, the retransmission module further comprises a buffer configured to
store the received packets until all packets are received successfully. Additionally
or alternatively, the size of the buffer is limited to store the amount of packets
that are received during up to 20 microseconds of normal operation. Additionally or
alternatively, the retransmission module further comprises a buffer configured to
store the received packets until they are requested by a client.
[0038] In one example, the packet data comprises information related to a packet header,
a packet payload, a packet tail, and/or an error detection code. Additionally or alternatively,
the FA-MCC may not be configured to converge optimally, and as such may not reach
an optimal solution even after 1 second. Additionally or alternatively, the digital
canceller may include an equalizer and a Decision Based Filter (DBF). Additionally
or alternatively, the equalizer may be a Feed Forward Equalizer (FFE). Additionally
or alternatively, the DBF may be a filter fed by an output of the slicer.
[0039] In some embodiments, upon detecting a serious interference, the communication system
reduces the code rate until the FA-MCC cancels the effect of the serious interference.
After the FA-MCC cancels the effect of the serious interference, the communication
system increases the code rate, optionally until returning to the code rate used before
the serious interference was detected.
[0040] Reducing the code rate improves the packets' robustness to noise, and thus enables
the transceiver to receive at least some of the packets successfully. Reducing the
code rate may be implemented in addition to the retransmission module described above.
[0041] The code rate may be reduced by various techniques such as Dynamic Modulation Coding
(DMC), adding Error Correction Code (ECC), and/or transmitting a known sequence (that
reduces the code rate to practically zero).
[0042] In one embodiment, the code rate is reduced by decreasing the modulation order using
Dynamic Modulation Coding (DMC). DMC is described, for example, in
US Patent number 8,565,337, titled "Devices for transmitting digital video and data over the same wires", which
is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. For example, upon detecting a
serious interference, a Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM) transceiver may switch from
using PAM16 to PAM4 until the FA-MCC cancels the effect of the serious interference,
and then switch from PAM4 to PAM8, and from PAM8 back to PAM16 when the channel properties
allow.
[0043] In another embodiment, the code rate is reduced by adding ECC, either by adding ECC
when there was no ECC, or by increasing the amount of the ECC overhead in order to
improve the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). For example, the ECC may be added by continually
adding ECC overhead to the stream, optionally in a similar manner to convolutional
codes. Additionally or alternatively, the ECC may be added/ strengthened by adding
the EC overhead to fixed length data segment, optionally in a similar manner to block
codes.
[0044] In another embodiment, the code rate is reduced to practically zero by transmitting
a known sequence. In one example, the known sequence is based on the scrambler sequence,
such as transmitting the scrambler, or transmitting bitwise complement code words
of the scrambler. In another example, the known sequence is based on the idle sequence,
such as transmitting the idle sequence, or transmitting bitwise complement code words
of the idle sequence. One embodiment of a transmitter that transmits bitwise complement
code words of the idle sequence includes an encoder configured to encode a first frame,
a basic idle sequence, and a second frame, wherein the first frame, the basic idle
sequence, and the second frame include code words. The transmitter further includes
an idle sequence modifier configured to produce an idle sequence by replacing certain
M code words of the basic idle sequence with M bitwise complement code words (where,
optionally, each bitwise complement code word appears in the basic idle sequence).
Bitwise complement, also known as bitwise NOT, applies logical negation on each bit,
forming the ones' complement of a given binary value. For unsigned integers, the bitwise
complement of a number is the mirror reflection of the number across essentially the
half-way point of the unsigned integer's range.
[0045] FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a communication system operating over a differential
communication channel 310 that is not completely known and may suffer from serious
common-mode-to-differential-mode interference. The communication system includes a
transceiver 301 and a transceiver 300 (which does not include the transceiver 301
and the channel 310) capable of communicating at a high throughput, with communication
rates possibly exceeding 100 Mbps, 1Gbps, or 10Gbps.
[0046] The communication system may be implemented, at least in part, on Integrated Circuits
(ICs) having limited resources. In one embodiment, the transceiver 301 utilizes a
retransmission module 304 that uses a buffer 305 to store the packets that may have
to be retransmitted. In one embodiment, the transceiver 300 utilizes a retransmission
module 342 that uses a buffer 343 to store the received packets until all the packets
are received successfully.
[0047] In one embodiment, the sizes of the buffers (305, 343) used by the retransmission
modules may be limited in order to save cost. In one example, the buffer 305 of the
transceiver 301 can store up to 20 microseconds of traffic sent at the highest communication
rate. In another example, the transceiver 300 forwards the packets in the correct
order and the buffer 343 of the transceiver 300 can store up to 30 microseconds of
traffic sent at the highest communication rate. In still another example, at least
one of the buffers of the transceiver 301 and transceiver 300 can store up to 100
microseconds of traffic sent at the highest communication rate.
[0048] Upon detecting a new serious interference, the transceiver 300 utilizes the FA-MCC
with large adaptation step size to cancel the effect of the serious interference fast.
Until the interference is cancelled, the rate controller 346 reduces the rate of transmitting
the packets in order to improve the packets' robustness to noise.
[0049] In response to receiving an indication from the PCS 340 about the serious interference,
the rate controller 346 commands the transceiver 301 to reduce its code rate, and
updates the transceiver 300 about the reduction in the code rate. In response to receiving
a further indication from the PCS 340 that the FA-MCC successfully canceled the effect
of the serious interference, the rate controller 346 commands the transceiver 301
to increase its code rate, and updates the transceiver 300 about the increment in
the code rate.
[0050] The indication from the PCS 340 to the rate controller 346 may by function of one
or more of the following values: the percent of the lost packets, the rate of the
lost packets, a function of the lost and successfully received packets, a score proportional
to the detected interference, a score proportional to a slicing error provided by
the slicer 326, and/or a score proportional to the number of errors detected by the
PCS 340.
[0051] In one example, the command from the rate controller 346 to the transceiver 300 about
the reduction in the code rate causes the slicer 326 to change its slicer function
to a slicing function suitable for the reduced code rate.
[0052] Upon detecting that the effect of the serious interference has been cancelled by
the FA-MCC, the rate controller 346 increases the code rate of transmitting the packets.
[0053] In one embodiment, at least one of the packets that could not been sent due to insufficient
bandwidth while the code rate was reduced, is discarded without attempting a delayed
transmission or retransmission. In one example, the traffic transmitted over the communication
channel 310 includes video pixel data that is discarded during the time the systems
uses the lower code rate.
[0054] In another embodiment, at least some of the packets that could not be sent while
the code rate was reduced, are stored, optionally in buffer 305 at the transceiver
301, and transmitted after the code rate is restored to a level that permits transmission
of the extra data. In one example, the traffic transmitted over the communication
channel 310 includes time sensitive data (e.g., video synchronization data) and time
insensitive data (e.g., Ethernet data). While operating in the lower code rate, the
system continues to transmit the time sensitive data, and stores the time insensitive
data optionally in buffer 305. After cancelling the interference and restoring the
code rate to a level having higher bandwidth, the system transmits the stored time
insensitive data in parallel to transmission of ongoing data.
[0055] In one example, the command from the rate controller 346 to the transceiver 300 about
increasing the code rate causes the slicer 326 to change its slicer function to one
suitable for the higher code rate.
[0056] The convergence of the FA-MCC after serious interference is usually not optimal because
an optimal convergence is usually not fast enough.
[0057] In one example, the serious interference causes packet loss to exceed 50% at the
transceiver 300, and the FA-MCC is designed to converge within less than 20 microseconds
to a level that reduces the packet loss at the transceiver 300 to less than 5%.
[0058] In another example, the serious interference causes packet loss to exceed 10% at
the transceiver 300, and the FA-MCC is designed to converge within less than 10 microseconds
to a level that reduces the packet loss at the transceiver 300 to less than 1%.
[0059] In still another example, the serious interference causes packet loss to exceed 2%
at the transceiver 300, and the FA-MCC is designed to converge within less than 20
microseconds to a level that reduces the packet loss at the transceiver 300 to less
than 0.1%.
[0060] The digital canceller 325 may be implemented in various ways. FIG. 3 illustrates
one example in which the digital canceller 325 includes at least an equalizer 324
and a DBF 328. In one example, the equalizer 324 and/or the DBF 328 may have different
functions for the different data rates.
[0061] Using different function for different data rates is described, for example, in
US Patent number 8,930,795, titled "Methods for slicing dynamically modulated symbols", which is incorporated
herein by reference in its entirety. For example, the slicing results are fed to the
PCS 340, which parses the data packets and extracts information such as a packet header,
a packet payload, a packet tail, and packet modulation information. The PCS 340 determines
the modulation used by the transceiver 301, and indicates the slicer 236 of which
slicing function to use. The slicer 326 may then provide the slicing results from
the indicated slicer to the DBF 328. Optionally, the slicer 326 may additionally provide
slicing errors associated with the slicing results. Following that, the DBF 328 generates
the appropriate output and adds it to the incoming signal from the equalizer 324.
[0062] In one embodiment, the transceiver 300 includes an optional retransmission module
342 that receives the parsed packets from the PCS 340, and based on the received parsed
packets it may request retransmission of the packets with errors. In one embodiment,
one of the relationships between the FA-MCC and the retransmission module 342 is that
the buffer 343 used by the retransmission module 342 is large enough to store the
arriving packets until the FA-MCC cancels the effect of the serious interference.
The combination of the fast converging FA-MCC and the retransmission module 342 enables
both transceivers 300 and 301 to use small retransmission buffers also when operating
over a communication channel that is not completely known and suffers from serious
common-mode-to-differential-mode interference.
[0063] As a result of reducing the code rate, some of the packets may not be transmitted
even once because the effective communication bandwidth is reduced. These packets
may be stored in the retransmission buffer 305 at the transceiver 301, which has to
be large enough to store the packets that cannot be transmitted as long as the system
operates at the lower code rate (typically until the effect of the serious common-mode-to-differential-mode
interference is cancelled to a sufficient level).
[0064] The following are additional optional embodiments that may be combined with the above
described embodiments. The following embodiments are independent of the above described
embodiments and are not intended to limit the above described embodiments.
[0065] In one embodiment, a transceiver configured to recover fast to a serious interference,
comprising:
a first transceiver configured to communicate with a second transceiver over a link;
the first transceiver comprises: a receiver analog front end (Rx AFE), an adaptive
digital equalizer and canceller (ADEC), a slicer, a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS),
and link layer component;
the Rx AFE receives a signal from the second transceiver and feeds the signal to the
ADEC that feeds an equalized signal to the slicer that generates slicing decisions
and slicing errors;
the ADEC generates the equalized signal based on the received signal, the slicer decisions,
and the slicer errors; wherein the ADEC comprises an Adaptive Decision Feedback Equalizer
(ADFE) with more than 50 taps, the better the slicer decisions the lower the ADFE's
error propagation, and the smaller the slicer errors the faster the ADFE's convergence;
the PCS extracts a bitstream from the slicing decisions, and feeds the bitstream to
the link layer component that parses the bitstream into packets;
shortly after identifying a serious interference that causes an error above a predetermined
threshold, the first transceiver requests the second transceiver to transmit known
data, the PCS utilizes the known data to provide correct decisions to the slicer,
and the slicer calculates correct slicer errors based on the correct decisions and
the equalized signal; and
shortly after the ADFE eliminates the error propagation fast as a result of the correct
decisions, and converges fast as a result of the correct slicer errors, the first
transceiver requests the second transceiver to transmit unknown data.
[0066] In one embodiment, a transceiver configured to recover fast to a serious interference,
comprising:
a first transceiver configured to communicate with a second transceiver over a differential
wired communication channel;
the first transceiver comprises: a receiver analog front end (Rx AFE), an adaptive
digital equalizer and canceller (ADEC), a common mode sensor AFE (CMS-AFE), a fast-adaptive
mode-conversion canceller (FA-MCC), a slicer, a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS), and
link layer component;
the Rx AFE and the CMS-AFE receive a signal from the second transceiver;
the Rx AFE feeds the signal to the ADEC that generates an equalized signal;
the CMS-AFE feeds the signal to the FA-MCC that generates a compensation signal to
cancel a differential interference caused by mode-conversion of a common mode signal;
the slicer generates slicing decisions and slicing errors based on the equalized signal
and the compensation signal;
the ADEC generates the equalized signal based on the received signal, the slicer decisions,
and the slicer errors; wherein the ADEC comprises an Adaptive Decision Feedback Equalizer
(ADFE) with more than 50 taps, the better the slicer decisions the lower the ADFE's
error propagation, and the smaller the slicer errors the faster the ADFE's convergence;
the FA-MCC generates the compensation signal based on the received signal and the
slicer errors; wherein the FA-MCC comprises, and the smaller the slicer errors the
faster the FA-MCC's convergence;
the PCS extracts a bitstream from the slicing decision, and feeds the bitstream to
the link layer component that parses the bitstream into packets;
shortly after identifying a serious interference that causes an error above a predetermined
threshold, the first transceiver accelerates its adaptation to the serious interference
by requesting the second transceiver to reduce the rate of the transmitted data; whereby
the reduced rate improves the accuracies of both the slicer decisions and the slicer
errors; and
shortly after the ADFE reduces the error propagation fast as a result of the more
accurate slicer decisions, and converges fast as a result of the smaller slicer errors,
the first transceiver requests the second transceiver to increase the rate of the
transmitted data.
[0067] Optionally, the analyzing of the received signal comprises at least one of the following:
extracting a packet from the received signal and identifying a CRC errors in the packet,
identifying a slicing error of the received signal that is above a predetermined threshold,
identifying that the received signal is not an idle sequence on idle time, and receiving
an indication of a serious interference from a common mode detector that analyzed
the received signal.
[0068] Detecting the serious interference based on the slicer error can lead to a very fast
detection of the serious interference, even after just a few symbols, and especially
when using a low modulation where the symbols are expected to be close to the decision
levels of the slicer.
[0069] Optionally, the detection module is configured to identify the serious interference
within less than 1 microsecond after the serious interference reaches a predetermined
threshold.
[0070] In one example, the detection module is configured to identify the serious interference
within less than 0.1 microseconds after the serious interference reaches a predetermined
threshold.
[0071] Optionally, the transceiver receives the signal from a wired channel, it is assumed
that the channel parameters of the wired channel do not change
[0072] In one embodiment, communication link comprising first and second transceivers that
communicate time sensitive data over a link, comprising:
an Rx analog front end (AFE) and a common mode sensor AFE (CMS-AFE) coupled to a differential
communication channel that is coupled to a second transceiver; the differential communication
channel is not completely known, and the transceiver is expected to work at a first
packet loss rate when there is no serious interference; from time to time the differential
communication channel suffers from serious interference that increases the packet
loss rate of the transceiver to a second packet loss rate that is at least ten times
the first packet loss rate;
the CMS-AFE is configured to extract a digital representation of a common mode signal
of the received differential signal, and to forward it to a fast-adaptive mode-conversion
canceller (FA-MCC) configured to generate a compensation signal to cancel the differential
interference caused by mode-conversion of the common mode signal;
responsive to receiving an indication that the serious interference has occurred,
the FA-MCC is further configured to increase its adaptation step size (ASS) by at
least 50% in order to cancel the effect of the serious interference fast;
the Rx AFE is configured to extract the received differential signal and feed it to
an adaptive digital equalizer and canceller (ADEC);
the FA-MCC and the ADEC are configured to reconstruct a representation of the original
transmitted signal, and feed the representation of the original transmitted signal
to a slicer configured to feeds a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS) with sliced symbols;
the PCS is configured to extract a bitstream from the sliced symbols, and to feed
a link layer component configured to parse the sliced symbols into packets;
the link layer component comprises a retransmission module configured to request retransmission
of packets with errors;
wherein the FA-MCC is configured to converge at a short time such that the retransmissions
caused by the serious interference still enables the transceiver to forward packets
at the predetermined average rate and in the correct order after receiving the retransmitted
packets; and
the FA-MCC is further configured to reduce its ASS after it cancels the effect of
the serious interference.
[0073] Optionally, the FA-MCC is further configured to converge at a short time such that
the retransmissions caused by the serious interference still enables the transceiver
to forward packets within a packet delay variation selected from the group of less
than: 1 millisecond, 200 microseconds, and 50 microseconds.
[0074] In one embodiment, transceiver configured to forward time sensitive data at a predetermined
average rate, comprising:
a receiver analog front end (Rx AFE) and a common mode sensor AFE (CMS-AFE) coupled
to a differential communication channel that is coupled to a second transceiver; the
differential communication channel is not completely known, and the transceiver is
expected to work at a first packet loss rate when there is no serious interference;
from time to time the differential communication channel suffers from serious interference
that increases the packet loss rate of the transceiver to a second packet loss rate
that is at least ten times the first packet loss rate;
the CMS-AFE is configured to extract a digital representation of a common mode signal
of the received differential signal, and to forward it to a fast-adaptive mode-conversion
canceller (FA-MCC) configured to generate a compensation signal to cancel the differential
interference caused by mode-conversion of the common mode signal;
responsive to receiving an indication that the serious interference has occurred,
the FA-MCC is further configured to increase its adaptation step size (ASS) by at
least 50% in order to cancel the effect of the serious interference fast;
the Rx AFE is configured to extract the received differential signal and feed it to
an adaptive digital equalizer and canceller (ADEC);
the FA-MCC and the ADEC are configured to reconstruct a representation of the original
transmitted signal, and to feed the representation of the original transmitted signal
to a slicer configured to feeds a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS) with sliced symbols;
the PCS is configured to extract a bitstream from the sliced symbols, and to feed
a link layer component configured to parse the sliced symbols into packets;
the link layer component comprises a retransmission module configured to request retransmission
of packets with errors;
wherein the FA-MCC is configured to converge at a short time such that the retransmissions
caused by the serious interference still enables the transceiver to forward packets
at the predetermined average rate and in the correct order after receiving the retransmitted
packets; and
the FA-MCC is further configured to reduce its ASS after it cancels the effect of
the serious interference.
[0075] In one example, the FA-MCC increases its ASS by at least 200% in order to cancel
the effect of the serious interference fast. In another example, the FA-MCC increases
its ASS by at least 1000% in order to cancel the effect of the serious interference
fast.
[0076] Optionally, the FA-MCC is further configured to converge at a short time such that
the retransmissions caused by the serious interference still enables the transceiver
to forward packets within a predetermined packet delay variation.
[0077] Optionally, the predetermined packet delay variation is shorter than 100 microseconds.
[0078] Optionally, the second packet loss rate, which is caused by the serious interference
before it is cancelled by the mode conversion canceller, is at least 100, 1,000, 10,000,
100,000 times the first packet loss rate.
[0079] Optionally, the predetermined average rate is calculated over a window shorter than
1 milli-second.
[0080] Optionally, the retransmission module comprises a limited-size buffer having capacity
sufficient to store all the packets that are transmitted when transmitting at the
highest transmission rate for a period lasting no more than 40,000 symbols.
[0081] Optionally, the retransmission module comprises a limited-size buffer having capacity
sufficient to store all the packets that are transmitted when transmitting at the
highest transmission rate for a period lasting no more than 5,000 symbols.
[0082] Optionally, the transceiver and the second transceiver are implemented on integrated
circuits having limited resources; and the second transceiver comprises a limited-size
buffer having capacity sufficient to store all the packets that are transmitted when
transmitting at the highest transmission rate for a period lasting no more than 40,000
symbols.
[0083] Optionally, the FA-MCC is not configured to converge optimally, and does not reach
an optimal solution even after 1 second.
[0084] Optionally, the FA-MCC reduces its ASS, by at least 50%, within less than 50 microseconds
after it cancels the effect of the serious interference.
[0085] In one example, the FA-MCC reduces its ASS, by at least 200%, within less than 50
microseconds after it cancels the effect of the serious interference.
[0086] Optionally, the FA-MCC reduces its ASS, by at least 50%, within less than 1 second
after it cancels the effect of the serious interference.
[0087] In one example, the FA-MCC reduces its ASS, by at least 400%, within less than 1
second after it cancels the effect of the serious interference.
[0088] Optionally, the FA-MCC reduces its ASS, by at least 50%, within 1 second from the
time the retransmission module finishes retransmitting the packets with errors that
were lost during the time it took the FA-MCC to cancel the effect of the serious interference.
[0089] In one embodiment, a communication system, having a maximum throughput above 1.2
Gbit/s, implemented on an integrated circuit (IC) having limited resources, comprising:
a transceiver comprising a digital canceller coupled to an Rx analog front end (AFE)
and a common mode sensor AFE (CMS-AFE) coupled to a differential communication channel
that is coupled to a second transceiver; the differential communication channel is
not completely known, and the transceiver is expected to work at packet loss below
1% when there is no serious interference; from time to time the differential communication
channel suffers from serious interferences that increase the packet loss rate of the
transceiver to above 5%;
responsive to receiving an indication that the serious interference has occurred,
a fast-adaptive mode-conversion canceller (FA-MCC) is configured to increase its adaptation
step size (ASS) by at least 50% in order to cancel the effect of the serious interference
within less than 100 microseconds; and
a limited resources retransmission module (LRRM) configured to store and retransmit
an amount of erred packets accumulated during less than 100 microseconds at the maximum
throughput;
wherein the FA-MCC is further configured to reduce its ASS after it cancels the effect
of the serious interference.
[0090] Optionally, the FA-MCC is configured to cancel the effect of the serious interference
within less than 20 microseconds.
wherein the LRRM is configured to store and retransmit an amount of erred packets
accumulated during less than 20 microseconds at the maximum throughput.
[0091] Optionally, the digital canceller is configured to feed a slicer that is configured
to feed a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS) with quantization results; the PCS is configured
to extract packet data from the quantization results; and the retransmission module
is further configured to receive the packet data, and to request retransmission of
packets with errors based on the packet data.
[0092] Optionally, the retransmission module is implemented on the IC with limited resources
that cannot support retransmission of more than 100% of the packets received during
the time it takes the FA-MCC to cancel the effect of the serious interference.
[0093] Optionally, the communication system achieves one or more of the following requirements:
a maximum allowed jitter, a maximum amount of dropped packets, and requirements related
to time sensitive data transmitted over the communication channel.
[0094] Optionally, the retransmission module further comprises a buffer with a capacity
that is sufficient to store the received packets until all packets are received successfully.
[0095] Optionally, the capacity of the buffer is limited to store all the packets that are
received during up to 20 microseconds while the packet loss rate is above 5%.
[0096] Optionally, the FA-MCC is not configured to converge optimally, and does not reach
an optimal solution even after 1 second.
[0097] Optionally, the digital canceller comprises an equalizer and a Decision Based Filter
(DBF).
[0098] Optionally, the equalizer is a Feed Forward Equalizer (FFE).
[0099] Optionally, the DBF is a filter fed by output of the slicer.
[0100] Optionally, the FA-MCC is further configured to reduce the adaptation step size,
by at least 50%, within 1 second from the time the retransmission module finishes
retransmitting packets with errors that were lost during the time it took the FA-MCC
to cancel the effect of the serious interference.
[0101] Optionally, the packet data comprises information related to a packet header, a packet
payload, a packet tail, and an error detection code.
[0102] In one embodiment, a transceiver combining dynamic coding and fast recovery, comprising:
a digital canceller that is coupled to an Rx analog front end (AFE) and to a common
mode sensor AFE (CMS-AFE) that are coupled to a differential communication channel
that is coupled to a second transceiver; the differential communication channel is
not completely known and the transceiver is expected to work at a first packet loss
rate when there is no serious interference; from time to time the differential communication
channel suffers from serious interferences that increase the packet loss rate of the
transceiver to a second packet loss rate that is at least ten times the first packet
loss rate;
the digital canceller is configured to feed a slicer that is configured to feed a
Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS) with quantization results;
the PCS is configured to extract the packets from the quantization results;
responsive to receiving an indication that the serious interference has occurred,
a rate controller is configured to command the second transceiver to reduce the code
rate of the packets, transmitted over the differential communication channel, by at
least 50%;
the rate controller is further configured to update a fast-adaptive mode-conversion
canceller (FA-MCC), the digital canceller and the slicer about the reduction in the
code rate; concurrently, the FA-MCC is configured to increase its adaptation step
size (ASS) by at least 50% in order to cancel, within less than 100 microseconds,
the effect of the serious interference and to return the transceiver's packet loss
rate to the first packet loss rate; and
shortly after the FA-MCC cancels the effect of the serious interference, the rate
controller is further configured to command the second transceiver to increase the
code rate, and to update the FA-MCC, the digital canceller and the slicer about the
increment in the code rate; and
the FA-MCC is further configured to reduce its ASS after it cancels the effect of
the serious interference.
[0103] Optionally, the rate controller is configured to command the second transceiver to
reduce the code rate of the packets transmitted over the differential communication
channel by 20% to 50%.
[0104] Optionally, the rate controller is configured to command the second transceiver to
reduce the code rate of the packets transmitted over the differential communication
channel by 50% to 95%.
[0105] Optionally, the FA-MCC is further configured to utilize large adaptation step size
that enables it to cancel, within less than 20 microseconds, the effect of the serious
interference and to return the transceiver's packet loss rate to the first packet
loss rate.
[0106] Optionally, the rate controller is further configured to command the second transceiver
to further increase the code rate until the second transceiver returns to the code
rate used before the serious interference was detected.
[0107] Optionally, the transceiver further comprises a retransmission module configured
to request retransmission of packets with errors, based on the packets extracted by
the PCS.
[0108] Optionally, the retransmission module is limited to support retransmission of up
to 200% of the packets received during the time it takes the FA-MCC to cancel the
effect of the serious interference.
[0109] Optionally, the transceiver and the second transceiver utilize Dynamic Modulation
Coding in order to reduce the code rate.
[0110] Optionally, the packets are modulated using Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM), and
the rate controller commands the second transceiver to switch from using PAM16 to
PAM4 until the FA-MCC cancels the effect of the serious interference.
[0111] Optionally, the code rate is reduced by adding Error Correction Code to the packets.
[0112] Optionally, the indication that the serious interference has occurred is based on
one or more of the following values received from the PCS: a percent of lost packets,
a rate of lost packets, a function of lost and successfully received packets, a score
proportional to the detected interference, a score proportional to slicing error provided
by the slicer, and a score proportional to number of errors detected by the PCS.
[0113] Optionally, the update of the slicer by the rate controller comprises an indication
to the slicer to change its slicer function to a slicing function suitable for the
reduced code rate.
[0114] Optionally, at least one of the packets that could not be sent due to insufficient
bandwidth while the code rate was reduced, is discarded without attempting a delayed
transmission or retransmission.
[0115] Optionally, the packets carry video data, and the at least one discarded packet comprises
video pixel data and does not include video controls.
[0116] Optionally, at least some of the packets that could not be sent while the rate was
reduced, are stored in a buffer at the second transceiver, and transmitted after the
rate is restored to a level that permits transmission of the extra data.
[0117] Optionally, the traffic transmitted over the differential communication channel comprises
time sensitive data and time insensitive data, and while operating in the lower code
rate, the second transceiver is configured to transmit the time sensitive data, and
stores the time insensitive data in a buffer.
[0118] Optionally,, after cancelling the effect of the serious interference and restoring
the code rate to a level having higher bandwidth, the second transceiver is further
configured to transmit the time sensitive data stored in the buffer.
[0119] Optionally, the FA-MCC is further configured to reduce the adaptation step size shortly
after the increase in the code rate.
[0120] Optionally, the FA-MCC is further configured to reduce the adaptation step size,
by at least 50%, within 1 second from the time of increasing the code rate.
[0121] In this description, references to "one embodiment" mean that the feature being referred
to may be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. Moreover, separate
references to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" in this description do not necessarily
refer to the same embodiment. Additionally, references to "one embodiment" and "another
embodiment" may not necessarily refer to different embodiments, but may be terms used,
at times, to illustrate different aspects of an embodiment.
[0122] The embodiments of the invention may include any variety of combinations and/or integrations
of the features of the embodiments described herein. Although some embodiments may
depict serial operations, the embodiments may perform certain operations in parallel
and/or in different orders from those depicted. Moreover, the use of repeated reference
numerals and/or letters in the text and/or drawings is for the purpose of simplicity
and clarity and does not in itself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments
and/or configurations discussed. The embodiments are not limited in their applications
to the details of the order or sequence of steps of operation of methods, or to details
of implementation of devices, set in the description, drawings, or examples. Moreover,
individual blocks illustrated in the figures may be functional in nature and therefore
may not necessarily correspond to discrete hardware elements.
[0123] While the methods disclosed herein have been described and shown with reference to
particular steps performed in a particular order, it is understood that these steps
may be combined, sub-divided, and/or reordered to form an equivalent method without
departing from the teachings of the embodiments. Accordingly, unless specifically
indicated herein, the order and grouping of the steps is not a limitation of the embodiments.
Furthermore, methods and mechanisms of the embodiments will sometimes be described
in singular form for clarity. However, some embodiments may include multiple iterations
of a method or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise. For
example, when a processor is disclosed in one embodiment, the scope of the embodiment
is intended to also cover the use of multiple processors. Certain features of the
embodiments, which may have been, for clarity, described in the context of separate
embodiments, may also be provided in various combinations in a single embodiment.
Conversely, various features of the embodiments, which may have been, for brevity,
described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or
in any suitable sub-combination. Embodiments described in conjunction with specific
examples are presented by way of example, and not limitation. Moreover, it is evident
that many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled
in the art. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural
changes may be made without departing from the scope of the embodiments. Accordingly,
this disclosure is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variations
that fall within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
1. A transceiver (100) configured to recover within less than 1 millisecond from quality
degradation in its operating point, comprising:
a receiver analog front end, Rx AFE, (716), an adaptive module comprising at least
one of an adaptive digital equalizer and an adaptive digital canceller, ADEC, (718),
and a slicer (735);
the Rx AFE (716) receives a signal of more than 500 Mbps from a second transceiver
(102) over a link (210), and feeds the signal to the ADEC (718) that generates a slicer
input signal;
the slicer (735) utilizes the slicer input signal to generate slicing decisions and
slicing errors; wherein the slicing errors are used to adapt the ADEC (718);
shortly after identifying quality degradation in the transceiver's operating point,
the transceiver (100) indicates the second transceiver (102) to transmit known data;
and
within less than 1 millisecond from identifying the quality degradation, the transceiver
(100) utilizes the known data to improve the accuracy of the slicing errors, which
enables fast adaptation of the ADEC (718), that improves the quality in the transceiver's
operating point to a level that enables the transceiver (100) to indicate the second
transceiver (102) to transmit data;
characterized in that
the slicer includes a soft decision (730), a selector (732), and an error generator
(734) and, when the second transceiver (102) transmits the known data, the selector
(732) outputs a known decision (741) instead of a decision received from the soft
decision (730), and the error generator (734) generates the slicing errors based on
a reconstructed representation of an original transmitted signal (728) at the slicer
input and the known decision (741).
2. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the quality degradation in the transceiver's operating
point comprises identifying amount of CRC errors above a predetermined threshold.
3. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein within less than 100 microseconds from identifying
the quality degradation, the transceiver utilizes the known data to improve quality
in its operating point to a level that enables the transceiver (100) to indicate the
second transceiver (102) to transmit data.
4. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the link (210) maintains a fixed rate of data
transmission, such that there is less than 2% difference between a first amount of
unique data successfully transmitted over the link over a first 2-millisecond window
that ends 100 microseconds before identifying the quality degradation and a second
amount of unique data successfully transmitted over the link over a second 2-millisecond
window adjacent to the first window.
5. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the link (210) maintains a fixed rate of data
transmission, such that there is less than 1% difference between a first amount of
unique data successfully transmitted over the link over a first 500 microseconds window
that ends 50 microseconds before identifying the quality degradation and a second
amount of unique data successfully transmitted over the link over a second 500 microseconds
window adjacent to the first window.
6. The transceiver of claim 5, wherein the quality degradation would have caused a difference
above 10% between the amounts of unique data successfully transmitted over the two
adjacent 500 microseconds windows had the transceiver not been recovered from the
quality degradation in its operating point.
7. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the transceiver utilizes the known data to improve
quality in its operating point by utilizing the known data to improve the accuracies
of the slicing decisions and the slicing errors, which are used to adapt the ADEC
(718).
8. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the ADEC (718) comprises one or more equalizers
selected from: Decision Feedback Equalizer, DFE, and Feed-Forward Equalizer, FFE,
and one or more cancellers selected from: FEXT canceller, NEXT canceller, and DFE
canceller.
9. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the ADEC (718) comprises an Adaptive Decision
Feedback Equalizer (ADFE) with more than 50 taps, whereby the better the slicing decisions
the lower the ADFE's error propagation.
10. The transceiver of claim 1, further comprising a Physical Coding Sublayer, PCS, (234)
configured to extract a bitstream from the slicing decisions, and to feeds the bitstream
to a link layer component that parses the bitstream into packets.
11. The transceiver of claim 1, wherein the link (210) is a differential wired communication
link.
12. A method for recovering within less than 1 millisecond from quality degradation in
a transceiver's operating point, comprising:
receiving, by the transceiver (100), a signal of more than 500 Mbps from a second
transceiver (102) over a link (210);
feeding the signal to an adaptive module comprising at least one of an adaptive digital
equalizer and an adaptive digital canceller, ADEC, (718), for generating a slicer
input signal;
utilizing the slicer input signal to generate slicing decisions and slicing errors;
utilizing the slicing errors for adapting the ADEC (718);
shortly after identifying quality degradation in the transceiver's operating point,
indicating the second transceiver (102) to transmit known data; and
within less than 1 millisecond from identifying the quality degradation, utilizing
the known data to improve the accuracy of the slicing errors, which enables fast adaptation
of the ADEC (718), that improves the quality in the transceiver's operating point
to a level that enables the transceiver (100) to indicate the second transceiver (102)
to transmit data; the method characterized in: including in the slicer a soft decision (730), a selector (732), and an error generator
(734) and, when the second transceiver (102) transmits the known data, outputting,
by the selector (732), a known decision (741) instead of a decision received from
the soft decision (730), generating, by the error generator (734), the slicing errors
based on a reconstructed representation of an original transmitted signal (728) at
the slicer input and the known decision (741).
13. The method of claim 12, wherein within less than 100 microseconds from identifying
the quality degradation, further comprising utilizing the known data to improve the
quality in the operating point to a level that enables the transceiver (100) to indicate
the second transceiver (102) to transmit data.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the link maintains a fixed rate of data transmission,
such that there is less than 2% difference between a first amount of unique data successfully
transmitted over the link (210) over a first 2-millisecond window that ends 100 microseconds
before identifying the quality degradation and a second amount of unique data successfully
transmitted over the link over a second 2-millisecond window adjacent to the first
window.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the link maintains a fixed rate of data transmission,
such that there is less than 1% difference between a first amount of unique data successfully
transmitted over the link (210) over a first 500 microseconds window that ends 50
microseconds before identifying the quality degradation and a second amount of unique
data successfully transmitted over the link over a second 500 microseconds window
adjacent to the first window.
1. Transceiver (100), der konfiguriert ist, um in weniger als 1 ms nach einer Qualitätsminderung
seines Betriebspunkts wiederhergestellt zu werden, und der umfasst:
ein Empfänger-Analog-Front-End (Rx-AFE) (716), ein adaptives Modul, das mindestens
einen eines adaptiven digitalen Equalizers und eines adaptiven digitalen Unterdrückers
(Adaptiv Digital Canceller, ADEC) (718) umfasst, und einen Zerteiler (Slicer) (735);
wobei der Rx-AFE (716) ein Signal mit mehr als 500 Mbps von einem zweiten Transceiver
(102) über eine Verknüpfung (210) empfängt und das Signal in den ADEC (718) einspeist,
der ein Zerteilereingangssignal erzeugt;
wobei der Zerteiler (735) das Zerteilereingangssignal verwendet, um Zerteilungsentscheidungen
und Zerteilungsfehler zu erzeugen; wobei die Zerteilungsfehler verwendet werden, um
den ADEC (718) anzupassen;
wobei kurz nach dem Identifizieren einer Qualitätsminderung des Betriebspunkts des
Transceivers, der Transceiver (100) den zweiten Transceiver (102) anweist, sodass
er bekannte Daten überträgt; und
wobei der Transceiver (100) innerhalb von weniger als 1 ms nach dem Identifizieren
der Qualitätsminderung die bekannten Daten verwendet, um die Genauigkeit der Zerteilungsfehler
zu verbessern, was eine schnelles Anpassung des ADEC (718) ermöglicht, wodurch die
Qualität des Betriebspunkts des Transceivers auf ein Niveau verbessert wird, das dem
Transceiver (100) erlaubt, den zweiten Transceiver (102) anzuweisen, sodass er Daten
überträgt;
dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass
der Zerteiler eine Soft-Decision-Einheit (730), eine Auswahlvorrichtung (732) und
einen Fehlergenerator (734) aufweist, und, wenn der zweite Transceiver (102) die bekannten
Daten überträgt, die Auswahlvorrichtung (732) eine bekannte Entscheidung (741) anstatt
einer von der Soft-Decision-Einheit (730) empfangenen Entscheidung ausgibt, und der
Fehlergenerator (734) die Zerteilungsfehler aufgrund einer rekonstruierten Darstellung
eines ursprünglich übertragenen Signals (728) an dem Zerteilereingang und aufgrund
der bekannten Entscheidung (741) erzeugt.
2. Transceiver nach Anspruch 1, wobei die Qualitätsminderung des Betriebspunkts des Transceivers
ein Identifizieren einer CRC-Fehlermenge über einem vorbestimmten Schwellenwert umfasst.
3. Transceiver nach Anspruch 1, wobei der Transceiver innerhalb von weniger als 100 µs
nach dem Identifizieren der Qualitätsminderung die bekannten Daten verwendet, um die
Qualität seines Betriebspunkts auf ein Niveau zu verbessern, das dem Transceiver (100)
erlaubt, den zweiten Transceiver (102) anzuweisen, sodass er Daten überträgt.
4. Transceiver nach Anspruch 1, wobei die Verknüpfung (210) eine feste Datenübertragungsrate
beibehält, sodass eine Differenz von weniger als 2 % zwischen einer ersten Menge an
eindeutigen Daten, die in einem ersten 2-ms-Fenster, das 100 µs vor dem Identifizieren
der Qualitätsminderung endet, erfolgreich über die Verknüpfung übertragen werden,
und einer zweiten Menge an eindeutigen Daten, die in einem zu dem ersten Fenster benachbarten
zweiten 2-ms-Fenster, erfolgreich über die Verknüpfung übertragen werden.
5. Transceiver nach Anspruch 1, wobei die Verknüpfung (210) eine feste Datenübertragungsrate
beibehält, sodass eine Differenz von weniger als 1 % zwischen einer ersten Menge an
eindeutigen Daten, die in einem ersten 500-µs-Fenster, das 50 µs vor dem Identifizieren
der Qualitätsminderung endet, erfolgreich über die Verknüpfung übertragen werden,
und einer zweiten Menge an eindeutigen Daten, die in einem zu dem ersten Fenster benachbarten
zweiten 500-µs-Fenster, erfolgreich über die Verknüpfung übertragen werden.
6. Transceiver nach Anspruch 5, wobei die Qualitätsminderung eine Differenz von mehr
als 10 % zwischen den Mengen an eindeutigen Daten, die in den beiden benachbarten
500-ps-Fenstern erfolgreich über die Verknüpfung übertragen werden, verursacht hätte,
wenn der Transceiver nicht von der Qualitätsminderung seines Betriebspunkts wiederhergestellt
worden wäre.
7. Transceiver nach Anspruch 1, wobei der Transceiver die bekannten Daten verwendet,
um die Qualität seines Betriebspunkts zu verbessern, indem die bekannten Daten verwendet
werden, um die Genauigkeiten der Zerteilungsentscheidungen und der Zerteilungsfehler
zu verbessern, die verwendet werden, um den ADEC (718) anzupassen.
8. Transceiver nach Anspruch 1, wobei der ADEC (718) umfasst: einen oder mehrere Equalizer,
die ausgewählt werden aus: einem Entscheidungsrückmeldungsequalizer (Decision Feedback
Equalizer, DFE) und einem Vorkopplungsequalizer (Feed-Forward Equalizer, FFE); und
einen oder mehrere Unterdrücker, die ausgewählt werden aus: einem FEXT-Unterdrücker,
einem NEXT-Unterdrücker und einem DFE-Unterdrücker.
9. Transceiver nach Anspruch 1, wobei der ADEC (718) einen adaptiven Entscheidungsrückmeldungsequalizer
(Adaptive Decision Feedback Equalizer, ADFE) mit mehr als 50 Einstellungen umfasst,
wobei gilt, dass je besser die Zerteilungsentscheidungen sind, umso geringer die Fehlerausbreitung
des ADFE ist.
10. Transceiver nach Anspruch 1, der außerdem eine physische Codierungsteilschicht (Physical
Coding Sublayer, PCS) (234) umfasst, die konfiguriert ist zum Extrahieren eines Bitstroms
aus den Zerteilungsentscheidungen und zum Einspeisen des Bitstroms in eine Verknüpfungsschichtkomponente,
die den Bitstrom in Datenpakete aufteilt.
11. Transceiver nach Anspruch 1, wobei die Verknüpfung (210) eine differenziell verkabelte
Kommunikationsverknüpfung ist.
12. Verfahren zum Wiederherstellen in weniger als 1 ms nach einer Qualitätsminderung seines
Betriebspunkts eines Transceivers, wobei das Verfahren umfasst:
Empfangen, in dem Transceiver (100), eines Signals mit mehr als 500 Mbps von einem
zweiten Transceiver (102) über eine Verknüpfung (210);
Einspeisen des Signals in ein adaptives Modul, das mindestens einen eines adaptiven
Equalizers und eines adaptiven digitalen Unterdrückers (Adaptiv Digital Canceller,
ADEC) (718) zum Erzeugen eines Zerteilereingangssignals umfasst;
Verwenden des Zerteilereingangssignals, um Zerteilungsentscheidungen und Zerteilungsfehler
zu erzeugen;
Verwenden der Zerteilungsfehler, um den ADEC (718) anzupassen;
kurz nach dem Identifizieren einer Qualitätsminderung des Betriebspunkts des Transceivers,
Anweisen des zweiten Transceivers (102), sodass er bekannte Daten überträgt; und innerhalb
von weniger als 1 ms nach dem Identifizieren der Qualitätsminderung, Verwenden der
bekannten Daten, um die Genauigkeit der Zerteilungsfehler zu verbessern, was eine
schnelle Anpassung des ADEC (718) ermöglicht, wodurch die Qualität des Betriebspunkts
des Transceivers auf ein Niveau verbessert wird, das dem Transceiver (100) erlaubt,
den zweiten Transceiver (102) anzuweisen, sodass er Daten überträgt;
wobei das Verfahren gekennzeichnet ist durch:
Einfügen einer Soft-Decision-Einheit (730), einer Auswahlvorrichtung (732) und eines
Fehlergenerators (734) in den Zerteiler und,
wenn der zweite Transceiver (102) die bekannten Daten überträgt, Ausgeben durch die Auswahlvorrichtung (732) einer bekannten Entscheidung (741) anstatt einer von
der Soft-Decision-Einheit (730) empfangenen Entscheidung, und Erzeugen, durch den Fehlergenerator (734), der Zerteilungsfehler aufgrund einer rekonstruierten Darstellung
eines ursprünglich übertragenen Signals (728) an dem Zerteilereingang und aufgrund
der bekannten Entscheidung (741).
13. Verfahren nach Anspruch 12, wobei das Verfahren weniger als 100 µs nach dem Identifizieren
der Qualitätsminderung außerdem ein Verwenden der bekannten Daten umfasst, um die
Qualität des Betriebspunkts auf ein Niveau zu verbessern, das dem Transceiver (100)
erlaubt, den zweiten Transceiver (102) anzuweisen, sodass er Daten überträgt.
14. Verfahren nach Anspruch 12, wobei die Verknüpfung eine feste Datenübertragungsrate
beibehält, sodass eine Differenz von weniger als 2 % zwischen einer ersten Menge an
eindeutigen Daten, die in einem ersten 2-ms-Fenster, das 100 µs vor dem Identifizieren
der Qualitätsminderung endet, erfolgreich über die Verknüpfung (210) übertragen werden,
und einer zweiten Menge an eindeutigen Daten, die in einem zu dem ersten Fenster benachbarten
zweiten 2-ms-Fenster, erfolgreich über die Verknüpfung übertragen werden.
15. Verfahren nach Anspruch 12, wobei die Verknüpfung eine feste Datenübertragungsrate
beibehält, sodass eine Differenz von weniger als 1 % zwischen einer ersten Menge an
eindeutigen Daten, die in einem ersten 500-ps-Fenster, das 50 µs vor dem Identifizieren
der Qualitätsminderung endet, erfolgreich über die Verknüpfung (210) übertragen werden,
und einer zweiten Menge an eindeutigen Daten, die in einem zu dem ersten Fenster benachbarten
zweiten 500-ps-Fenster, erfolgreich über die Verknüpfung übertragen werden.
1. Émetteur-récepteur (100) configuré pour récupérer en moins d'une milliseconde suite
à une dégradation de la qualité de son point de fonctionnement, comprenant :
un dispositif frontal analogique récepteur, Rx AFE, (716), un module adaptatif comprenant
au moins un dispositif parmi un égaliseur numérique adaptatif et un annuleur numérique
adaptatif, ADEC, (718), et un trancheur (735) ;
le Rx AFE (716) reçoit un signal de plus de 500 Mbps d'un second émetteur-récepteur
(102) sur une liaison (210), et envoie le signal à l'ADEC (718) qui génère un signal
d'entrée de trancheur ;
le trancheur (735) utilise le signal d'entrée du trancheur pour générer des décisions
de tranchage et des erreurs de tranchage ; où les erreurs de tranchage sont utilisées
pour adapter l'ADEC (718) ;
peu de temps après avoir identifié la dégradation de la qualité du point de fonctionnement
de l'émetteur-récepteur, l'émetteur-récepteur (100) indique au second émetteur-récepteur
(102) de transmettre des données connues ; et
moins d'une milliseconde après avoir identifié la dégradation de la qualité, l'émetteur-récepteur
(100) utilise les données connues pour améliorer la précision des erreurs de tranchage,
ce qui permet une adaptation rapide de l'ADEC (718), qui améliore la qualité du point
de fonctionnement de l'émetteur-récepteur à un niveau qui permet à l'émetteur-récepteur
(100) d'indiquer au second émetteur-récepteur (102) de transmettre des données ;
caractérisé en ce que :
le trancheur comprend une décision douce (730), un sélecteur (732) et un générateur
d'erreurs (734) et, lorsque le second émetteur-récepteur (102) transmet les données
connues, le sélecteur (732) délivre en sortie une décision connue (741) au lieu d'une
décision reçue de la décision douce (730), et le générateur d'erreurs (734) génère
les erreurs de tranchage sur base d'une représentation reconstruite d'un signal original
transmis (728) à l'entrée du trancheur et de la décision connue (741).
2. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 1, dans lequel la dégradation de la qualité
du point de fonctionnement de l'émetteur-récepteur comprend l'identification d'une
quantité d'erreurs CRC supérieure à un seuil prédéterminé.
3. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 1, dans lequel, en moins de 100 microsecondes
après avoir identifié la dégradation de la qualité, l'émetteur-récepteur utilise les
données connues pour améliorer la qualité au point de fonctionnement à un niveau qui
permet à l'émetteur-récepteur (100) d'indiquer au second émetteur-récepteur (102)
de transmettre des données.
4. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 1, dans lequel la liaison (210) maintient
un débit fixe de transmission de données, de manière à ce qu'il y ait moins de 2 %
de différence entre une première quantité de données uniques transmises avec succès
sur la liaison pendant une première fenêtre de 2 millisecondes qui se termine 100
microsecondes avant d'identifier la dégradation de la qualité et une seconde quantité
de données uniques transmises avec succès sur la liaison pendant une seconde fenêtre
de 2 millisecondes adjacente à la première fenêtre.
5. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 1, dans lequel la liaison (210) maintient
un débit fixe de transmission de données, de manière à ce qu'il y ait moins de 1 %
de différence entre une première quantité de données uniques transmises avec succès
sur la liaison pendant une première fenêtre de 500 microsecondes qui se termine 50
microsecondes avant d'identifier la dégradation de la qualité et une seconde quantité
de données uniques transmises avec succès sur la liaison pendant une seconde fenêtre
de 500 microsecondes adjacente à la première fenêtre.
6. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 5, dans lequel la dégradation de la qualité
aurait provoqué une différence supérieure à 10 % entre les quantités de données uniques
transmises avec succès sur les deux fenêtres adjacentes de 500 microsecondes si l'émetteur-récepteur
n'avait pas récupéré de la dégradation de la qualité de son point de fonctionnement.
7. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 1, dans lequel l'émetteur-récepteur utilise
les données connues pour améliorer la qualité de son point de fonctionnement en utilisant
les données connues pour améliorer la précision des décisions de tranchage et des
erreurs de tranchage, qui sont utilisées pour adapter l'ADEC (718).
8. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 1, dans lequel l'ADEC (718) comprend un
ou plusieurs égaliseurs sélectionnés parmi : un égaliseur à rétroaction de décision,
DFE, et un égaliseur prédictif, FFE, et un ou plusieurs annuleurs sélectionnés parmi
: un annuleur FEXT, un annuleur NEXT et un annuleur DFE.
9. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 1, dans lequel l'ADEC (718) comprend un
égaliseur à rétroaction à décision adaptative (ADFE) avec plus de 50 prises, moyennant
quoi meilleures sont les décisions de tranchage, plus la propagation de l'erreur de
l'ADFE est faible.
10. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 1, comprenant en outre une sous-couche de
codage physique, PCS, (234) configurée pour extraire un flux binaire des décisions
de tranchage, et pour transmettre le flux binaire à un composant de couche de liaison
qui analyse le flux binaire en paquets.
11. Émetteur-récepteur selon la revendication 1, dans lequel la liaison (210) est une
liaison de communication filaire différentielle.
12. Procédé de récupération en moins d'une milliseconde suite à la dégradation de la qualité
du point de fonctionnement d'un émetteur-récepteur, comprenant les étapes suivantes
:
recevoir, par l'émetteur-récepteur (100), un signal de plus de 500 Mbps d'un second
émetteur-récepteur (102) sur une liaison (210) ;
transmettre le signal à un module adaptatif comprenant au moins un dispositif parmi
un égaliseur numérique adaptatif et un annuleur numérique adaptatif, ADEC, (718),
pour générer un signal d'entrée de trancheur ;
utiliser le signal d'entrée de trancheur pour générer des décisions de tranchage et
des erreurs de tranchage ;
utiliser les erreurs de tranchage pour adapter l'ADEC (718) ;
peu de temps après avoir identifié la dégradation de la qualité du point de fonctionnement
de l'émetteur-récepteur, indiquer au second émetteur-récepteur (102) de transmettre
des données connues ; et
moins d'une milliseconde après avoir identifié la dégradation de la qualité, utiliser
les données connues pour améliorer la précision des erreurs de tranchage, ce qui permet
une adaptation rapide de l'ADEC (718), qui améliore la qualité du point de fonctionnement
de l'émetteur-récepteur à un niveau qui permet à l'émetteur-récepteur (100) d'indiquer
au second émetteur-récepteur (102) de transmettre des données ;
le procédé étant caractérisé par les étapes suivantes :
inclure dans le trancheur une décision douce (730), un sélecteur (732) et un générateur
d'erreurs (734) et, lorsque le second émetteur-récepteur (102) transmet les données
connues, délivrer en sortie, par le sélecteur (732), une décision connue (741) au
lieu d'une décision reçue de la décision douce (730), générer, par le générateur d'erreurs
(734), les erreurs de tranchage sur la base d'une représentation reconstruite d'un
signal transmis original (728) à l'entrée du trancheur et de la décision connue (741).
13. Procédé selon la revendication 12, dans lequel moins de 100 microsecondes après l'identification
de la dégradation de la qualité, le procédé comprend en outre d'utiliser les données
connues pour améliorer la qualité du point de fonctionnement à un niveau qui permet
à l'émetteur-récepteur (100) d'indiquer au second émetteur-récepteur (102) de transmettre
des données.
14. Procédé selon la revendication 12, dans lequel la liaison maintient un débit fixe
de transmission de données, de manière à ce qu'il y ait moins de 2 % de différence
entre une première quantité de données uniques transmises avec succès sur la liaison
(210) pendant une première fenêtre de 2 millisecondes qui se termine 100 microsecondes
avant d'identifier la dégradation de la qualité et une seconde quantité de données
uniques transmises avec succès sur la liaison pendant une seconde fenêtre de 2 millisecondes
adjacente à la première fenêtre.
15. Procédé selon la revendication 12, dans lequel la liaison maintient un débit fixe
de transmission de données, de manière à ce qu'il y ait moins de 1 % de différence
entre une première quantité de données uniques transmises avec succès sur la liaison
(210) pendant une première fenêtre de 500 microsecondes qui se termine 50 microsecondes
avant d'identifier la dégradation de la qualité et une seconde quantité de données
uniques transmises avec succès sur la liaison pendant une seconde fenêtre de 500 microsecondes
adjacente à la première fenêtre.